Fraud-accused businessman Mike Chimombe and his colleague Moses Mpofu were difficult to arrest, a Harare magistrate was told Thursday.
The two are facing fraud charges after they allegedly prejudiced the state of US$7 million in a Presidential Goat Scheme.
They were placed in custody following their initial appearance on Wednesday.
The State represented by Anesu Chirenje opposed their bail.
He called Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission investigating officer Gamuchirai Zimunhu who supported his application telling magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa that the two were difficult to arrest.
"They will continue to interfere with investigations because when they visited our offices they took some videos and posted them on social media," Zimunhu said.
"Public disorder may arise because people will no longer trust justice system in that ZACC catches and releases people.
"Accused may abscond from court on Tuesday 25 June we spent the greater part of the day manhunting for them and they were not to their place of residence.
"We called them on Monday after they left. When Mr Chapwanya (the other IO) called Mr Mugiya to advise him that we wanted to see his client, Mr Chimombe said was out of Harare and Mpofu was at his farm in Zvimba.
"He promised to bring them before 6 pm but they didn't come and Mugiya promised to bring them on Tuesday and we waited for them up to mid-day.
"Mr Chapwanya advised Mugiya that his clients had turned hostile and teams were deployed to manhunt the accused person," she said.
Chimombe and Mpofu handed themselves in on Wednesday.
Allegations are that the duo forged a ZIMRA Tax Clearance certificate and a NSSA compliance certificate for Mpofu's company Blackdeck Private Limited and attached them in a bidding document submitted to the Ministry of Lands for a tender for the supply and delivery of goats under the Presidential Goat Pass-on Scheme.
The State submitted that the accused "misrepresented that the company was in full compliance with ZIMRA and NSSA requirements. Investigations indicated that the QR code and the reference on the NSSA compliance certificate were issued to a different company. It was further established that Blackdeck Private Limited was deregistered from the NSSA system in January 2016. Further investigations established that Blackdeck Private Limited was not issued with a ZIMRA tax clearance certificate for the year 2021 and that the QR code on the forged tax clearance certificate belonged to a different company.
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"Acting on the misrepresentation, the Ministry of Lands contracted Blackdeck Private Limited on the 3rd of November 2021. The Ministry transferred ZWL901 294 200 and ZWL698 705 800 on the 21st of April 2022 and the 29th of June 2022 respectively into their bank account. The total amount was ZWL1.6 billion and was equivalent to USD7 712 197. Following delays in the delivery of the goats, the Ministry of Lands officials made several engagements with the accused persons.
"The accused persons misrepresented that they had mobilized 32 500 goats across the provinces which were ready to be distributed to the beneficiaries. However, a verification process revealed that the accused persons only had 3 713 goats in their holding sites. The Ministry cancelled the contract on the 29th of August 2022, following the discovery.
"The accused persons only supplied a total of 4 208 goats valued at USD331 445 and went on to convert USD7 380 751 to their personal use. Nothing was recovered."
Bail hearing continues Friday.
